The NHL recently announced a significant rule change that left one Boston Bruins executive very excited.

Bruins president Cam Neely was overjoyed to hear of the NHL’s change to 3-on-3 overtime format, which he hopes will eliminate a majority of shootouts determining regular-season games. Neely caught up with NESN’s Sarah Davis in Las Vegas earlier this week to talk about it.

“Well, I’m thrilled about going right to 3-on-3, to be honest with you,” Neely said. “I know there were some groups that wanted 4-on-4 first and then 3-on-3, but I like going right to 3-on-3. I think that’ll be interesting for the fans.”

The Boston Bruins have a big decision to make, but the outcome isn’t entirely in their hands.

Their coveted 22-year-old defenseman will hit the market as a restricted free agent next week, meaning other teams can sign Hamilton to an offer sheet. The Bruins have the right to match any contract offer Hamilton receives, but their tricky salary-cap situation might prevent them from doing so.

The bright side? If Hamilton’s contract reaches a certain dollar amount threshold, the Bruins could net up to a first-, second- and third-round future draft pick as compensation for him.

NESN’s Billy Jaffe and Barry Pederson broke down Hamilton’s restricted free agency and how the Bruins should handle it on “Bruins Faceoff Live: Summer Edition” on Thursday night. Check out their analysis in the video above.

The B’s will take the ice Saturday night for a must-win road game against the Tampa Bay Lightning. Not only do they need a victory, but they also need the Pittsburgh Penguins to lose to the Buffalo Sabres in order to earn the final wild-card spot in the NHL’s Eastern Conference.

Boston has had a frustrating last two games, and emotions undoubtedly are running high with the possibility of missing the postseason looming on the horizon. NESN’s Andy Brickley has been there before, though, and before the big matchup, he observed that playing with an edge can benefit the Bruins in their do-or-die matchup.

“If you have those emotions, if you have that kind of channeled anger in a game that you have to win because it’s an elimination game for the Boston Bruins … that’s all good,” Brickley told broadcast partner Jack Edwards. “You wake up that way, you have that feeling, you can’t get to the rink early enough.”

Make no mistake about it. The Boston Bruins are fighting for their playoff lives.

The B’s have a lot at stake in Thursday’s game against the Florida Panthers at BB&T Center. Boston enters the contest hanging onto the final Wild Card spot in the NHL’s Eastern Conference with two games remaining, but is tied with the Ottawa Senators and could lose that spot with a loss.

No pressure, right?

Those high stakes might affect some Bruins players, so before Thursday night’s showdown, NESN’s Andy Brickley dished out some friendly advice: Enjoy it.

“Embrace the moment,” Brickley said. “This is why you play. It’s such a great opportunity for the Boston Bruins to have this chance to earn their way into the postseason. That’s all you can ask for, now go out and grab it.”

Loui Eriksson might never win the approval of some Boston Bruins fans for being involved in the trade that sent Tyler Seguin to the Dallas Stars, but this season should help change their minds.

In what has proved to be a rather tumultuous season, the Bruins winger’s play on the third line has stood out. Eriksson has 20 goals in 76 games — both highs in his three seasons with Boston — yet he’s still flying under the radar.

“From 2010 to 2012 when he had those 70-plus points — three consecutive 70-plus point seasons — everybody said he’s the most underrated or understated player in the National Hockey League, so why should it be any different right now?” NESN’s Billy Jaffe said before Thursday’s matchup against the Detroit Red Wings.

“… The reality is this. The injuries suffered were big. This year, I don’t know as many people appreciate his stick work, his defensive awareness, everything. He is understated, but hopefully he can get himself 25 goals this season.”

At just 18 years old, David Pastrnak is the youngest player in the NHL. But you wouldn’t know it from watching him play.

The Boston Bruins rookie has been quite impressive since the team called him up from Providence in late November. After a relatively slow start, the Czech Republic native has gone on to register 25 points (10 goals, 15 assists) in 40 games with the B’s, surpassing the numbers Tyler Seguin (11 goals, 11 assists in 74 games) tallied during his rookie season in Boston in 2010-11. Before Tuesday night’s game against the Florida Panthers, Pastrnak was honored with NESN’s 7th Player Award.

Yet Pastrnak’s contributions go beyond statistics and awards. According to NESN’s Billy Jaffe, the rookie has shown impressive maturity for a player of his age and experience level.

“What I like about Pastrnak, he understands what it’s about,” Jaffe said before the game. “He gets his role, he’s relishing the opportunity. He knows he has deficiencies, but he brings passion, energy and so much skill that this team needs.”

Boston had lost six consecutive games before beating the New York Rangers 4-2 on Saturday. Prior to that six-game skid, the B’s had won five contests in a row dating back to March 7. With a spot in the playoffs at stake, head coach Claude Julien knows his team needs to play well on a consistent basis.

That won’t be the easiest task against the Carolina Hurricanes, who enter Sunday’s contest having won their last two games.

“This team here tonight has been playing some of their best hockey,” Julien told reporters before the game. “To me, the Rangers game was a tough game. I would anticipate this one to be just as tough.”

Julien’s defenseman, Dennis Seidenberg, echoed those thoughts.

“That team has been playing really well in the last few games, so we can’t take them lightly,” Seidenberg said. “We have to play like we did yesterday.”

Hear more from Seidenberg, Julien and defenseman Adam McQuaid in the video above.

The Boston Bruins might not have gotten the result they wanted in Thursday’s 3-2 overtime loss to the Anaheim Ducks, but Cam Neely liked what he saw from his team.

The Bruins president stopped by “Bruins Face-Off Live” prior to Saturday’s game against the New York Ranger and spoke highly of his team’s effort in the latest loss. While frustration obviously is setting in for Neely and Co., he viewed the game as an encouraging sign with the regular season winding down and the B’s continuing to fight for their playoff lives.

“That was a man’s game, that game, and actually we played pretty well. That was one of our better games. If we played like that in previous games we’d have more wins, but hopefully that’s a sign of things to come the rest of the season here,” Neely told NESN’s Dale Arnold and Barry Pederson.

Neely also gave up an update on Brett Connolly’s injury and potential return, as well as his take on some NHL rule changes that were proposed at the NHL general managers meetings.

Before the NHL season began, the Boston Bruins didn’t look like a team that would be struggling to make the playoffs in the final days of the regular season.

But as it stood before Thursday’s matchup against the Anaheim Ducks, the B’s were on the outside of the playoff picture by just one point thanks to a five-game skid and some stellar play by the Ottawa Senators. For NESN’s Billy Jaffe, the Bruins’ struggles could be attributed to a lack of desperation.

“This is not to bash the team,” Jaffe said before Thursday’s game at TD Garden. “This is to show the lack of, at times, intensity, desperation and willingness to do anything to get the puck out and to play playoff-style hockey.”

“When you have this (extra defensive) layer that this team has been known for for the last six or seven years, you can have a mistake, but you can recover,” Pederson said. “Now, you have a little bit of adversity, and you can start to see them chasing around.”

Boston Bruins general manager Peter Chiarelli has spent the past few seasons trying to create depth within the organization, and now his work is being put to the test.

With center David Krejci still sidelined with a partial MCL tear that he suffered Feb. 20 and Dougie Hamilton out as of Saturday with an undisclosed injury, the Bruins will have to search within the ranks to find players to get them through the final 10 regular-season games — and possibly through the playoffs.

“The Bruins, especially around the (trade) deadline, there was concern — do they have enough on the back end?” NESN’s Andy Brickley said before Sunday’s game against the Tampa Bay Lightning. “Given the amount of games they’re going to have to play in the month of March — 11 during an 18-day stretch — the expectations were some players are going to get dinged up the back end, so you better have bodies ready to go to help you put points on the board.”

The Boston Bruins will feel a little lighter when they take the ice against the Anaheim Ducks next Thursday.

That’s because the squad will take part in the 8th annual “Cuts for a Cause” charity event Tuesday night at Boston Park Plaza Hotel. The event always has drawn its fair share of participants, but this year, Bruins alternate captain Patrice Bergeron got the entire squad on board for the first time ever.

That’s right: Even rookie David Pastrnak and veteran Loui Eriksson will be shaving off their beloved flowing locks.

The loss of hair, of course, is for a good cause, as the event will help raise money for the Boston Bruins Foundation and Floating Hospital for Children at Tufts Medical Center.

The Boston Bruins need as much manpower as possible heading into the final games of the regular season, and they could get some more as soon as this weekend.

Center David Krejci, who’s been sidelined with a partially torn MCL since Feb. 20, is feeling better and could return to the team as early as this weekend. The Bruins have two matchups in Florida, one against the Panthers on Saturday and another against the Tampa Bay Lightning on Sunday.

“They’re not going to play him if he’s not 100 percent. We all know that,” NESN’s Billy Jaffe said before Thursday’s game against the Senators in Ottawa. “It’s encouraging as all heck that he’s on the road trip.”

One of them is a young gun hoping to earn a permanent spot on the Boston Bruins’ roster. The other is a proven veteran hoping to prove his worth in his second year with the club.

Ryan Spooner and Loui Eriksson are at different stages in their careers, but both have stepped up their game during the Bruins’ recent win streak. Spooner tallied two goals in a 3-1 win over the Ottawa Senators on Tuesday, while Eriksson has scored in three of his last four contests.

The sample size is small, but NESN’s Andy Brickley said before Thursday night’s game against the Tampa Bay Lightning that he likes what he’s recently seen from the two forwards.

When NESN’s Jack Edwards and Andy Brickley asked Bruins head coach Claude Julien what Boston has gotten out of Max Talbot, he needed just two words: “A lot.”

The veteran forward came to the Bruins at the NHL trade deadline, and even though his stats aren’t flashy, his intangibles will be extremely important to Boston. Along with being able to play any forward position, Talbot can lead a team in a way many other guys can’t.

The 31-year-old was drafted in 2002 in the eighth round — which doesn’t even exist anymore — so he can offer a lot of perspective on being successful in the face of adversity.

“Not only is he a positive force, but he has that ability to look players in the eye, core players,” Brickley said before Tuesday’s game against the Ottawa Senators. “Maybe the message from the coach you hear all year kind of disappears, but when you hear it from a peer, the guy that has had this success, coming from where he’s come from, it has meaning.”

Torey Krug and Reilly Smith have stepped up for the Boston Bruins this season, and both were rewarded with contract extensions Friday.

But despite the fact that the 23-year-olds are among the B’s top performers, Smith was given a two-year extension, while Krug was extended only one year. The reason? The two want to be better than they already are.

“Just young players that have played well for us, that project well. And we wanted to keep the extensions shorter for a couple of reasons,” general manager Peter Chiarelli said before Saturday’s game against the Philadelphia Flyers.

“One, both feel like they can platform to higher levels. … So the shorter term gives us flexibility as far as seeing what they become, as far as moves in the future — not suggesting they’re going to be moved in the future. Shorter term gives them an opportunity.”

It’s sometimes hard to tell when a professional athlete has suffered a concussion. But when Deveney Andrade walked into Boston Children’s Hospital to meet Dr. William Meehan, both parties knew what had happened.

Andrade was ice skating with friends when she lost her balance and hit her head on the ice. When she started displaying symptoms of a concussion, Andrade headed to Children’s Hospital, where she received exceptional care under Meehan’s watch.

Thursday night is Boston Children’s Hospital Night at TD Garden, and Meehan and Andrade joined NESN’s Dale Arnold to offer insight into the tell-tale signs of a concussion. Check it out in the video above.

The Boston Bruins have played in their fair share of games on back-to-back days this season. The first game usually has gone well; the second, not so much.

The B’s are 7-2-2 in the first game of back-to-backs this season but just 2-6-2 in the second contest. Boston took care of business Friday night with a 3-2 overtime win over the New Jersey Devils, and they’ll look to buck the trend when they take on the Arizona Coyotes early Saturday night at TD Garden.

For Bruins forward Daniel Paille, there are no excuses.

“I think we got enough rest from getting in fairly early last night and getting some rest today,” Paille said before Saturday’s game. “So I think for us, at this time of the year, everyone’s going to be in this position, so we should be in shape enough to not let that distract us.”

Rask has been a workhorse for the Bruins of late, having appeared in appearing in the team’s last 18 games dating back to early January. The netminder is one of the league’s best when he’s on his game, but the Boston Globe’s Amalie Benjamin points out his play could suffer as a result of fatigue.

The solution? Find a viable backup to give Tuukka a breather.

“The Bruins need to figure out this backup situation,” Benjamin told NESN’s Guerin Austin before Friday’s game against the New Jersey Devils. “They can’t have Tuukka playing every game in all of March, especially in a schedule where they play every single Thursday, Saturday and Sunday in March … Someone else needs to take some of that strain off Tuukka.”

Boston’s options at the moment include Niklas Svedberg, recent call-up Jeremy Smith and rookie Malcolm Subban, who recently was sent down to Providence. Hear more from Benjamin in the video above.